“La Medicina Amarga” and the Unleashing of Austerity

This article discusses Public Law 7 in Puerto Rico, which was passed on March 2010 by the Fortuño administration, in response to the fiscal crisis. This law declared a state of economic emergency and, therefore, allowed the government to impose policies that would otherwise be illegal, which stripped the rights of government employees. One of the effects of this law was the laying off of more than 17,000 government workers. In addition to describing the law and its effects, the authors describes the one-day-general strike on October 5, 2010 when approximately 200,000 demonstrators protested in the streets against the economic and labor policies. The article also discusses the decisions and challenges of the union organizers who had a leading role in the protest.

This news article studies the impact of the Fortuño administration’s Public Law 7, which, in 2010, was promoted as the antidote to the economic crisis. This article’s findings demonstrate that this claim of economic alleviation was false. Instead of reactivating the economy, the statistics show that the policy exacerbated the Puerto Rican economic crisis.

This article explains how the United States’ economy has affected the world, creating a global feeling of uncertainty and economic polarization. Conditions have only worsened due to neoliberal practices where the lack of regulation wreaks havoc on the economic, social, and natural spheres. The author then zeroes in on Puerto Rico, placing it in the context of the US and global economic recession: the neoliberal and neoconservative solutions imposed by the Fortuño administration destroyed the route towards just, sustainable, democratic, economic development and has only lead to a greater recession.

This article from an online newsletter, provides an overview of how Puerto Rico acquired its status as a contradictory legal space—an “unincorporated territory”—and how its relationship with the United States has affected its social and economic policies. Afterwards, the article explains some of the history of anti-colonial and national struggles on the Island, from the 1960s to the 2010 University of Puerto Rico strike. According to the author, the 2010 UPR strike emerges as a response to economic collapse and the Fortuño administration austerity measures. The author shows that the University of Puerto Rico has often been a crucial locus of resistance on the island.